Symphony in B minor (Schubert)

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Facsimile (1885) of Schubert's autograph of the unfinished (third movement, scherzo; in contrast to the fully worked out first two movements, only the first 20 bars are orchestrated) as an attachment to the biography of its discoverer Johann von Herbeck

The Symphony in B minor , D 759 (numbering 7 or 8 in German-speaking countries), called The Unfinished , is a two-movement symphony by Franz Schubert . In addition, a rudimentary fragment of a third movement has been handed down, of which no generally accepted completion exists so far.

Work description

The symphony consists of two movements :

  1. Allegro moderato
  2. Andante con moto

Schubert only orchestrated the first 20 bars of a planned 3rd movement Scherzo (Allegro) trio ; the short score for this movement, noted as a piano sketch , does not break off until bar 16 of the trio.

The following audio files are from a recording by the Fulda City Symphony Orchestra in 2000:

1 sentence

Audio file / audio sample Listen ? / i

The first movement opens with a unison - motif of the cellos and double basses in pp . The fact that this line ends on the dominant note F sharp creates the impression of a question. The answer is a somber sixteenth note movement of the violins , above which the main theme is heard in the oboe and clarinet .

After an extremely short transition for a symphony, the key modulates from B minor to G major . The theme that now resounds is responsible for the symphony's great popularity, along with the nimbus of mystery. The melody is rural, even folksong-like . In tune with the cellos , it is then also heard in the violins. This is followed by a general break . After the secondary theme in G major, there is a real hole (the G major theme suddenly breaks off in the middle). After that, the strings break with dramatic ffz - tremolos in over dissonances in the winds. Again the secondary theme, but this time in different minor modulations, then again in major , this time also in the winds . The exposition ends here and is immediately repeated. This is followed by implementation . This thematically deals exclusively with the opening motif; only the syncopated accompaniment is taken from the side set. In the recapitulation , all three themes are dealt with again and increased to the finale of the first movement.

2nd movement

Audio file / audio sample Listen ? / i

According to tradition, the quieter second movement contrasts with the dramatic first. It is in E major (major variant of the subdominant), which sets it apart from the gloomy B minor of the 1st movement. In the exposition, three themes are heard which are repeated over and over again. The calm first theme lives from the contrast of an ascending melody of the horns, with a simultaneously descending pizzicato accompaniment of the strings. The following two topics also appear initially in a calm and almost contemplative mood. The second theme in C sharp minor, however, experiences a number of dramatic turns up to fortissimo. After running through the themes several times, the movement fades away with a calm coda from the material of the first theme.

occupation

2 flutes , 2 oboes , 2 clarinets , 2 bassoons , 2 horns , 2 trumpets , 3 trombones , timpani , strings

Performance duration: approx. 22 minutes.

Memorial plaque for the unfinished D 759 and Schubert as a guest at Schobers (1822) in the Göttweiger Hof Vienna on Spiegelgasse

history

Schubert worked on the symphony in B minor in 1822. It is not known why he stopped working on it, which, according to normal usage at the time of its creation, should consist of four movements. Allegedly Schubert offered the score to the Steiermärkischer Musikverein in 1823 as “one of my symphonies in score”, which would indicate that Schubert himself considered it to be complete in the two-movement form, but the authenticity of the letter of thanks serving as evidence was often questioned .

After that, the work was initially forgotten, and the score was only found in 1865 by Johann von Herbeck at Schubert's friend Anselm Hüttenbrenner and then premiered on December 17th under Herbeck's direction in the Redouten halls of the Vienna Hofburg .

The reason why this symphony remained “unfinished” is still unclear and the subject of discussion among musicologists . There is the theory that Schubert did not see the need to write a third and fourth sentence since he had already implemented all of his intentions in the first and second sentence. In this case Schubert would have ignored the formal basic structure of a symphony of his epoch. However, this is highly controversial. Another thesis is that Schubert broke off work on the third movement because he got too close to the third movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's Second Symphony .

Attempts to complete

In 1928, on the 100th anniversary of Schubert's death, the Columbia Graphophone Company held a competition in England to complete the symphony . Pianist Frank Merrick won the competition, and his scherzo and finale were performed and recorded for a radio broadcast. The two movements composed by Merrick have now been forgotten. More recently, Geoffrey Bush (1944), Denis Vaughan (around 1960), Gerald Abraham (1971), the British musicologist Brian Newbould (around 1980), the Würzburg conductor Hermann Dechant and the Tübingen University Music Director Tobias Hiller (2003) have completed the Symphony by using Schubert's own sketches of the Scherzo (although the trio had to be supplemented) and partly using one of the inter-act music from Schubert's incidental music for Rosamunde . (See also the first picture of this article.)

The music between acts from Rosamunde has long been considered the finale of the symphony by some musicologists. It is also in B minor, the instrumentation is identical, and the musical mood is similar to the two completed movements of the symphony. If the music between acts was to be the finale of the symphony, then Schubert would actually have removed it from the symphony and used it in the drama instead.

Another addition comes from the American musicologist William Carragan , who orchestrated the Scherzo and added to the trio. For the fourth movement, he used the second act music from the Rosamunde Ballet as a slow introduction to the final movement and added a repetition of the exposition, as it is in other movements that Schubert wrote in sonata form. For the most part, Carragan only used music by Schubert, to whom he added 13 bars at the first end of the exposition, 9 bars at the end of the movement, and 16 transposed and newly transposed bars at the end of the slow introduction. This version was recorded by Gerd Schaller with the Philharmonie Festiva 2011 in the Regentenbau of Bad Kissingen for Profil Edition Günter Hänssler.

The Russian composer Anton Safronov (who fundamentally rejects the inclusion of Rosamunden music as a possible explanation for the missing final movement) has completed the 3rd movement based on the existing sketches by Schubert and composed a new final movement for it, which he himself calls "a [en ] Trying to get into the composer's mentality ”, describes. The motivic material he used for this purpose is based on a number of z. Some unfinished piano works by Schubert. Safronov's version was premiered with the Philharmonie Baden-Baden (conducted by Werner Stiefel) in December 2005 and had its British premiere in London's Royal Festival Hall on November 6, 2007 with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under the direction of Wladimir Jurowski experienced. The Russian and US premieres under Jurowski with the Russian National Orchestra took place in the 2007-08 season.

Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs and Nicola Samale carried out a further completion of the scherzo in 2004. In 2015 Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs published a new Urtext edition, which on the one hand contained the Scherzo as the third movement and on the other hand used the Entracte No. 1 for the incidental music of Rosamunde as the fourth movement. This Urtext edition was performed and recorded in 2018 by Stefan Gottfried with the Concentus Musicus Wien at the Musikverein Wien .

literature

  • Peter Andraschke (Ed.): Franz Schubert. Symphony No. 7 in B minor “Unfinished”. Pocket score with explanation. Goldmann, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-442-33061-0 .
  • Martin Chusid (ed.): Franz Schubert. Symphony in B minor ("Unfinished"). An Authoritative Score, Schubert's Sketches, Views and Comments, Essays in History and Analysis. WW Norton & Cie., New York / London 1971, ISBN 0-393-09731-5 .
  • Andreas Dorschel , 'The Unanswered and the Unfinished', in: Musikfreunde XXIV (2011/12), No. 1, pp. 12-15.
  • Tobias Hiller: On the fragment and the attempt to complete the 3rd movement of Schubert's “Unfinished” Symphony in B minor, D 759. In: Schubert: Perspektiven , 4, 2004, pp. 187–219 (the score of Hiller's version is here ( Pp. 199-219) reproduced in full).
  • Renate Ulm (Ed.): Franz Schubert's Symphonies. Origin, interpretation, effect. dtv / Bärenreiter, Munich / Kassel 2000, ISBN 3-423-30791-9 .

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ According to the current state of research, the work bears No. 7 in the series of Schubert's symphonies . This was not always the case: initially the symphony was counted as No. 8 , since at this point in time the later Great Symphony in C major was already published as No. 7. It was not until the latest edition of the German directory (published by the editorship management of the Neue Schubert-Ausgabe and Werner Aderhold that the chronological order of the numbering was restored in 1978. On many CD publications, especially from the Anglo-Saxon-speaking area, it bears the no. 8, since the E major symphony D 729, which was also not completed, is counted as 7th there.
  2. ^ Compare for example Ernst Hilmar (Ed.): Schubert-Lexikon. Academic Printing and Publishing Establishment, Graz 1997, ISBN 3-201-01665-9 .
  3. ↑ Johann Herbeck. A portrait of his son Ludwig , Vienna 1885, pp. 162–169.
  4. ↑ Symphony in B minor, ed. By Martin Chusid, pp. 103-105
  5. ↑ Symphony in B minor D759, unfinished, completed in 4 movements by H. Dechant ( memento of July 18, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ). Catalog entry at Apollon Musikoffizin Austria.
  6. ^ Schubert's 'Unfinished' Symphony is brought to a satisfying close
  7. ↑ vedomosti.ru ( Memento of the original from October 9, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Russian only for subscribers. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.vedomosti.ru
  8. ^ Schubert, Brahms: Stephen Hough, piano; Russian National Orchestra, Vladimir Jurowski, conductor. Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, February 14, 2008 (HS)
  9. ↑ Franz Schubert's "Unfinished", completed . In: The press . ( diepresse.com [accessed November 18, 2018]).
  10. ^ Schubert: Symphony No. 7 'Unfinished' | Special music. Retrieved November 18, 2018 (fr-fr).